The New Gun Deal And The Poison Of Bipartisanship

To belabor the obvious, any compromise brokered on the issue of gun control between Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey is not "bipartisan" just because one of them is a Democrat and the other is a Republican. I realize that the courtier media — and a White House that seems far too concerned what the courtier media thinks on every issue — defines "bipartisanship" that way, because that's easier than confronting the fact that, in many ways, most notably in who it is that's subletting the entire Congress, our politics are distressingly unpartisan. But the fact is that, on this particular issue, there isn't enough room between Manchin and Toomey to shine a flashlight. To call the deal struck today "bipartisan" is to fetishize the adjective into virtual uselessness.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Once we establish that, and once we accept that any congressional movement on this issue was going to be pathetically inadequate to the actual problem, the deal itself isn't all that bad, as far as half-a-loaf goes. Background checks will be expanded, though not anywhere near as widely as they should be. ("Friend to friend" deals are still exempted and, even if the current deal passed as it is, which it won't, you'll be amazed at how widely the average underground gun dealer will expand his circle of friends as a result.) Records will be kept by federally licensed dealers. Of course, the bones thrown to the gun dealers are singularly capable of undermining the purpose of the whole bill.

The deal also permits licensed gun dealers to perform background checks on prospective employees and would grant licensed dealers with legal immunity from lawsuits if the weapon is subsequently used in a crime, said the aides. Dealers would be permitted to travel across state lines to sell weapons at gun shows, as long as the dealer abides by applicable state gun laws.

Still, it's what we can get, and it's "bipartisan," which seems to be the most important thing about it, and that, of course, is all the problem. Ever since Adam Lanza showed up at Sandy Hook Elementary School we have been told that the entire debate on this topic has changed. It has changed. It has changed to the point that we're being treated to a tepid replay of the debate that produced the actual assault-weapon ban and the Brady Bill in the 1990s. Nothing as sweeping as either of those two pieces of legislation ever was on offer because they were incapable of producing "bipartisan" support. So what we get today is a diluted version of what 91 percent of the people polled in the United States clearly support. And we actually may get a vote on the thing. (Put up or shut up time, Aqua Buddha. You got the stones to stand up and filibuster and face a cloture vote?) This is what passes for a triumph in the context of "bipartisanship." I accept that. Don't expect me to hire a marching band.

Because we have defined "bipartisanship" on this deal as an agreement between a Tea Party whackaloon Republican, and a Democrat who actually filmed a commercial where he shot the cap-and-trade-bill with a rifle, the deal proposed today is now the left-most acceptable legislative position on the debate over background checks. The deal will now proceed to the Senate, where amendments will be allowed. ("Moderate" Republican windsock Susan Collins of Maine made that the quid for her quo of declining to join a filibuster.) I will make the Toby Ziegler bet — all the money in my pocket against all the money in your pockets — that every amendment offered will be from the pro-gun side, which means that all of them will reduce further even the half-a-loaf announced today. All the "movement" on this issue will be toward weakening the Manchin-Toomey "bipartisan compromise." Then, the bill will go to the House, the majority party in which contains a remarkable number of crazy people. God alone knows what will happen to it there, but it will be nothing good. Sooner or later, you will hear tell of a House plans that is said by its proponents — and by the courtier media — be "in the spirit of Manchin-Toomey," and that's when you'll know the whole charade is reaching its inevitable climax. Two cheers, boys. Participation ribbons all around.